


no more running in the wrong direction

by mizzel



Category: Superstore (TV)
Genre: Angst with a some fluff at the end, F/M, I was hoping for some sort of heartfelt conversation in 4x01 but that didn't happen, Post 3x22, post town hall, post-season 3, so this happened instead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-03 04:11:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16318907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizzel/pseuds/mizzel
Summary: “Hey, Amy?” He said in a voice so hushed, it was almost inaudible.“Yeah?”“We’re still okay, right?”She took a deep breath and sighed softly. “Yeah.”-Set right after the finale, Jonah and Amy finally having the conversation that begins their relationship.





	no more running in the wrong direction

**Author's Note:**

> This is waaaay late and so overdue but I'm finally back in the mood to write and we honestly deserve to see Amy and Jonah during their suspension.
> 
> I didn't have anyone to proofread this so please help me out if you notice any mistakes or have any comments :)

  
  


“Turn it off!” Glenn yelled, pulling the monitor’s plug out.

 

“Yeah, that doesn’t help, it’s being live-streamed to all the stores right now.” Garrett said, pointing at the router.

 

“What?!” Glenn grabbed the router, pulling out wires before dropping it on the floor and stomping on it.

 

Garrett pointed and held his hands up in defense. “That’s store property that I am _not_ paying for.”

 

“180,000 people just saw that?”

 

“Yep,” Dina said, “Maybe more.”

 

“So, do we let them finish?” Garrett asked, trying to hold back laughter.

 

“Mad respect,” Cheyenne said with genuine amazement, “Bo and I have never put ours online, you can get paid insane money, but Bo doesn’t want anyone seeing me naked. Isn’t that sweet?”

 

“Can they get fired for this?” Sandra asked meekly.

 

“Oh! Jeff could probably pull some strings now that he has authority.” Cheyenne chimed in.

 

“The authority to fire them!” Glenn exclaimed.

 

“They’re probably already in trouble. It’s going to go viral in no time.” Garrett pulled out his phone, “Yep.” He said, turning the screen to the rest of them.  

 

Dina pointed at Mateo, “Garrett’s right. You should tell Jeff about it before it gets worse.”

 

“I’m not asking him for favours,” Mateo scoffed. “Plus, wouldn’t telling Jeff get them in trouble?”

 

“All of us could be in trouble once the word gets out that it was our store.”

 

“Ugh, fine.” Mateo said, pulling out his phone and walking into a corner.

 

“Hey, where’s Kelly?” Garrett said with glee, looking around the store. The rest of them shrugged in response before returning their attention to their own phone.

  
-

-

-

 

“Hey, guys.” Jonah said stepping into the space where everyone was gathered.

 

“Hey, man,” Garrett greeted, beaming with amusement. “I’m going to miss you, buddy.” He feigned, prompting Jonah to raise his eyebrows in confusion.

 

Glenn noticed them and made no hesitation to move closer and shriek, “Jonah! How could you?! She’s pregnant!”

 

Jonah’s face blanked, not registering Amy’s footstep approaching behind him. “What?” he uttered with panic.

 

“Everyone knows you and Amy banged in the photo lab, it was on the livestream. And when I say everyone, I mean every Cloud9 store around the world.” Dina said, sounding oddly upbeat.

 

“W— Wha—“ Jonah stammered as Amy stepped into the space. “What are you talking about?” Amy said, completely in terror.

 

“Remember how we had a hidden camera in case they try to cut off the livestream in the middle of exposing them?” Garrett said, “Well, the good news is that it would have worked if Jeff stuck to the plan.”

 

“You mean the camera was on the—“ Jonah’s eyes went wide as he whipped his head towards Amy next to him.

 

“Are you guys messing with us?” Amy asked, pleading that they were.

 

“Nope,” Cheyenne turned her phone to them, scrolling through a twitter search of Cloud9. Jonah’s jaw dropped at the sight of the videos of them, immediately pulling the phone to report the tweets.

 

“Oh god,” Amy said, pulling out her own phone, “I have to go.” She moved, running towards the break room and Jonah shoved the phone back to Cheyenne to run after Amy.

 

“Amy, Amy.” He approached her as she was pulling out her belongings from her locker.

 

“I have to get home.” She said in a panicked, breathless voice.

 

“Okay,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulder and turning her to him, “Can we talk later?”

 

Amy’s eyebrows wrinkled as she stared at him for a few stagnant seconds, “Yeah,” she finally breathed out, “yeah.”

 

His hands left her shoulder and she gave him a quick, tight smile. She left in a hurry, staying as far away as she can from the chatter that echoed through the closed store.

 

Jonah closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the lockers for a few seconds. He took a couple of deep breaths, exhaling out through pursed lips. “What the _fuck_ ,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled his head away from the locker and chucked his vest inside. He took a similar route and avoided everyone in the store, going straight home and into his room.

 

He planted his face into a pillow and dozed off, still wearing his work clothes while clutching tightly onto his phone. He jumped up in panic when his phone started buzzing violently in his hand.

 

“Hey,” Amy said on the other end of the phone.

 

“Hey! hey, hey.” He said, propping himself up on his bed in his dark room.

 

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

 

“No, no. It’s fine. How’s Emma?” He asked, trying to calm his nerves as he tried to wipe the sweat off his forehead and neck with a clammy hand. He woke up feeling worse than before. Sleeping was never really his forte, and especially not in stressful situations.

 

“She didn’t see anything, _thank god_. It was circulating around so her friends might have but it seems no one knows it was us,” she paused, taking a breath. “Hopefully it stays that way.”

 

“How did she take it?” He asked tenderly, his voice cracking a little from slumber.

 

“The best way she could I guess? She was already upset with everything that was going on and now _this_. She’s trying really hard to be understanding which makes everything feel even worse.”

 

“Sorry,” he muttered against the phone as he laid down and curled into a ball.

 

“Not your fault,” she said softly.

 

“She’s a good kid.”

 

“Yeah,” Amy said, feeling her eyes well up. She sighed as she sat on her couch, sinking into a slouch. One problem after another, yep, that’s her life. “Have you spoken to Jeff? I have a couple of missed calls, but I figured it’s too late to call back now.”

 

He cleared his throat, trying to drive the sleep out of it. “Yeah, he said they’re working on taking all the videos down and that we have a meeting with him and Laurie tomorrow.”

 

“Okay.” She uttered and laid down on her side, folding her legs up on the couch until her calves reached the back of her thighs. He remained silent on the phone as she squeezed her eyes shut with a sigh. She let herself wallow in self-pity for a while and then heaved herself out of it.

 

“Are you okay?” She breathed against the cold phone.

 

“Hmm?” He said, in slight surprise before replying, “Yeah, I’m okay.”

 

She stayed silent, not believing him for a second but not knowing how to probe or if she even should.

 

“Hey, Amy?” He said in a voice _so_ hushed, it was almost inaudible.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“We’re still okay, right?”

 

She took a deep breath and sighed softly. “Yeah.”

 

“Goodnight, Amy.”

 

“Goodnight, Jonah.”

 

Amy turned her head faced-down against the couch and groaned. It was frustrating how fast things manage to slip through her fingers. She cursed at the camera, blaming it for everything and trailed it back to when she accidentally getting Myrtle fired. She groaned again.

 

Butterfly effect. _Goddamn_.

 

She always did have the superpower of destroying her own life. This time was a record-breaking few minutes between amending her relationship with Jonah and having sex with him on a worldwide livestream.

 

She got up the next morning and showered, feeling entirely exhausted and worn out. She stepped up in front of the mirror as she shimmied into her jeans and she noticed her belly, vaguely taking its form. Above her left breast, a little hickey showed up where Jonah trailed her skin with kisses the night before and she bitterly ran a finger over it. It’s easy to say fresh start but realistically there isn’t any way to have a fresh start when you’re pregnant with your ex-husband’s baby, is there? Just then her phone vibrated, and it was Jonah texting to ask if she wanted coffee which was immediately and anxiously followed with,

 

_Tea? Smoothie? Fruit juice?_

 

She smiled tenderly and sighed, seating herself on her bed. _It’s alright, I’m good,_ she replied and threw on her shirt. She poured herself a cup of orange juice and thought about Jonah. She never doubted for a second that he’d support her. He always had. But getting into a relationship this complicated, with a baby, and a teen, and an ex-husband is a whole new level of support. One she was afraid didn’t exist.

 

The sky was cloudy that morning and Jonah watched it from his car in the parking lot opposite his usual cafe. He barely got any sleep, definitely not with the countless of times he woke up with a racing heart. He had settled on the fact that he wasn’t going to get any rest and went out for a walk instead. Took an hour but it successfully calmed him down a whole lot. He dressed for work and left the house way before Garrett could chime in with his colorful opinions. After a granola bar and half a cup of chamomile tea, he deemed himself ready to brave the day.

 

It lasted 3 whole minutes until he was pulling up into Cloud 9’s parking lot. Amy waited in her car until he pulled up next to her. He looked pretty much the way she felt, even with the sunshine that was finally peeking out of the clouds. The walk to Glenn’s office felt like the walk off a plank on a pirate ship. Amy almost rather walk off a plank in that very moment.

 

“Do you think we’ll get fired?” She said in a raspy morning voice which was evidently weaved with worry.

 

“Uh,” he glanced at her, reading her face to carefully pick his words, “It seems unlikely. It’ll probably be suspension.” His voice went serious for a brief moment before he yanked out all the optimism he could muster. “I mean they’re not going to fire their best floor supervisor,” he tried, “Cloud9 would go up in flames. Glenn would go up in flames.” She remained in a daze of worry and morning blur to even comprehend his attempt at easing the tension.

 

“It  would make more sense to fire me,” he uttered as they reach the door. His words jolted her into a  recurring unsettling feeling she constantly— _forcefully_ shoved away. The thing about the idea of Jonah leaving isn’t that it was possible, but the fact that it was _so very probable_. It could happen at any moment, just like that.

 

He slid his hand into hers, gave it a quick squeeze before letting it go and bringing his hand to turn the doorknob into a room where their job was hanging by a thread.

 

It went by relatively fast, with Jeff getting straight to the point and Laurie being eager to sign off on their suspension. Glenn sat in silence with the most uncomfortable look on his face and direct eye contact that made Jonah’s stomach twist more than actually getting suspended did.

 

When they finally made it back to the parking lot, the sky was clearer and the air was fresher. Amy felt like she could finally breathe, suspension might not be the worst thing in the world and a couple months away from Cloud9 could probably beneficial in some way. For a whole second, she forgot about the messiness she would have to deal with in the coming days.

 

She looked to Jonah, his hands were tucked in his pocket with his face looking almost optimistic. He had walked in, expecting to be fired for having his ass out on a livestream. Getting suspended nearly felt like a relief until the dreadfulness of having been naked on so many screens seeped back in.

 

“I feel like pancakes, you in?”

 

“Yeah,” Jonah said with shrug.

 

-

-

-

 

Amy opted for eggs and bacon at the sight of it on the table next to them and scuffed down it down as Jonah sat in awe opposite her with his cup of hot chocolate. They were out of the diner in barely 20 minutes thanks to the coffee smell that gave her a throbbing headache.

 

They stood side by side, leaning against her car as Amy caught her breath. “So, what now?” he asked, idly rubbing the sole of his shoe into the ground.

 

Amy looked to him, a little startled. She blinked a couple of times, her expression fading into something tense and distraught.

 

“I mean, it’s kind of up to you now, isn’t it?” She uttered in a meek tone, shifting her gaze to the ground. “You— You know how I feel and my whole, um, messy situation. So, I don’t know, wh— what are you thinking?” Amy cautiously and reluctantly tugged her eyes up to his.

 

His mouth hung open with his hands gripping desperately at each other, a habit of his whenever he got stressy.

 

“What?” Her voice pitched in panic.

 

“I actually meant what now, as in what we’re going to do _right now_. But um, that too.” He took a deep breath, nodding his head a couple of times. “Yeah, we should talk about that too.”

 

Amy grew a little flustered and looked at the ground again. “Oh,” she breathed, “Right now, uh, I don’t—” her voice faded into the air with a half-hearted shrug.

 

“Here,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulder, guiding her into his car.

 

“What? What is this?” She said uneasily.

 

“Stop whining and get in.”

 

She exhaled heavily after hearing the tension in his voice lift. “It's been a bad week I’m allowed to whine.”

 

She followed and sat silently with her eyebrows raised as he got into the car and drove out of the parking lot. He took multiple turns and drove into roads she couldn’t really recognise, causing her to grip at the seatbelt across her chest anxiously.

 

“You’re not going to drive to another state and apply for a job at another Cloud9, are you?”

 

“Funny,” he said, faking a laugh while his eyes still focused on the road.

 

They ended up in another parking lot, halfway up a hill. They got out of the car and he grabbed her hand, hiking up the hill until they reach a small park with benches and a wallpaper scenery. It was chilly despite the bright sun shining through the leaves. Jonah sat down with a sigh and tapped on the space next to him.

 

Despite relaxing atmosphere, Amy sat on the bench with all the tension in her shoulders. She was swallowing lump after lump, each one harder than the one before. It started halfway through their car ride when she started planning the words she was going to say to him. She was terrified. Terrified that there was no way to turn the page for a new beginning between them. She wanted him so much but asking him to stay while her life twisted into a bigger mess felt like too big of an ask.

 

Jonah glanced at her multiple times, watching her face as it grew more and more troubled. “So—”

 

“Do me a favour?”

 

“Be quiet? Don’t say anything?” he guessed and chuckled by himself, hoping to break the tension that had risen again.

 

“Think this through. I don’t know what you’re expecting from this and what fresh start even means at this point. But whatever this is, between us, it’s going to be complicated.”

 

“Okay.” Jonah said, trying to comprehend where the conversation was going as Amy spoke without pause.

 

“Starting over is new and shiny now. But all of that is going to disappear when this one comes along. Multiply it with Emma and Adam and it’s going to end up becoming too much.” She knew it all too well, committing to something out of desperation, thinking there’s no other options. And he had options, plenty of them. “I’ve been here before and I’ll be fine whatever you decide but I don’t want you to look back one day and resent me for it.”

 

He looked at her, at her hand on her belly and gave it thought. It was complicated, and he’s had simple all his life. He tolerated and went along with everything, always choosing the whichever option that pleased everyone.

 

“I don’t know.” He breathed, “I don’t know what I’ll want, five, ten months, a year from now, Amy. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I’m here now. That’s all I have.”

 

She sighed as her faced heated up. It would be worst to have him and then lose him, the thought of losing him was horrible enough now and they hadn’t even started a proper relationship.

 

“So, where do I stand? In all of this.”

 

“I don’t know. I wish I has an answer for you but I really,” she sighed, “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, and I get it. Everything’s complicated and messy. Even _I’m_ confused.” She slouched against the bench and closed her eyes. “It’s okay.” She took a few breaths, steadying herself.

 

“So, um, friends?” She tried and failed

 

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” He said, losing the heavy weight in his voice, now sounding awfully relaxed.

 

“What?” She whipped her head to him, her expression a complete disaster.

 

“No, I mean,” he scoffed, “You can’t really think we can go back to being just friends.”

 

Her face softened, and she shrugged, “I don’t know, we could try. We’ve done it before.” She was willing to settle for anything at this point, as long as he was still in her life.

 

He laughed this time, fully cracked up at her absurdity. “That worked out well.” She glared at him and he met her eyes. He somehow managed to pull a smile across his face, even with the terrible couple of weeks they’ve had. He placed his hands in hers and laced their fingers. She watched their hands intertwine as her heart pounded even harder. She cautiously looked at Jonah with anxiety running through all her nerves, making her entire body tense up.

 

He relaxed against the bench, looking up at the sky. “I’m serious about us.” He tilted his head towards her until they met at the eyes, “Right now, I really want this. With all the complications and everything. And in the future, whatever happens, happens. We’ll figure it out. I can’t promise you that it’s not going to be difficult and that I won’t get overwhelmed. We’ll probably argue— a lot actually, but that’s okay. I’m not planning on going anywhere.”

 

The way he somehow spoke even _more_ earnestly than usual tugged at her. She sighed in relief, chuckling into a teary-eyed smile. “Honestly, I thought you were going to say you’re going to move or you’re running away or something like that.”

 

“How would you move?” Jonah said, looking genuinely confused, “You have Emma and a whole life here. Plus, we’re kind of worldwide. There’s nowhere to run to.” He considered the facts as though it was an actual puzzle that needed to be solved. It did nothing to stop more tears from welling up in Amy’s eyes.

 

“No, I meant you, by yourself.”

 

Jonah gasped in offense, giving her a look. “Rude. Have at least a _little_ faith in me.” His words startled a full chuckle out of her. She laughed lightly as she leaned against his shoulder and stared at their laced fingers. He leaned his head on top of hers with a sigh of relief.

 

“You know you mean a lot to me,” she said softly before clearing her throat, “I’ll deny if you repeat this to anyone but, _you do_.”

  
The moment stilled with the both of them _finally_ standing in the same place.

**Author's Note:**

> Finally caught up on superstore and I was a little disappointed that they didn't address how they got together after the finale so I gathered some of the drabbles I wrote over the hiatus and came up with this, please do leave your thoughts and comments and prompts, if any and maybe I'll mess around and use them to turn other drabbles I've written into full-length fics. I haven't written in a long time so I'm afraid this might be out of character or just plain bland, please do let me know.
> 
> Also, I have a couple of AUs that I've been thinking of that diverges from certain points in season 2 so hmu if anyone would be interested in reading them and I'll try my best to tidy them up into proper, publishable fics.


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